Kickout
by GhostHelwig
Summary: Kyo's punishment has become Yuki's problem... Rated M for stuff in later chapters, including slash [yaoi]. Contains SPOILERS. Chapter four up now!
1. Part One: Before You Cage Me

Disclaimer – I do not own or profit from Fruits Basket. So stop pretending you think I do. It's annoying.

Rated M for things in later chapters (including slash). Trust the rating – I would know.

I know 'kickout' is supposed to be two words. However, the title of the story and this chapter is from a song called "Kickout" by The Exies, so I left the spelling. And no, this is _not_ a songfic, nor will I be quoting the song. I just like it, and thought it fit with the theme of this story, this chapter in particular...

This story contains **_SPOILERS_**. Do _not_ read if you don't want to know why Kyo is always trying to beat Yuki – that's kinda central to the plot. Also, I know the Akito **_spoiler_**, but as the main characters in this are ignorant of it, I'm not referencing it yet... I don't know if I will later or not, so if you don't want to know it, you shouldn't read this. Just to be safe.

Anyway, enjoy. Peace, all.

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**Kickout**

_Part One – Before You Cage Me_

by Ghost Helwig

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Yuki was staring up at him, and for a full minute Kyo did not understand. Yuki never ended their fights on the ground. He always ended them by _ending_ them, kicking Kyo's ass without one drop of sweat daring to mar that perfect pale skin.

But now Yuki was looking down, messy hair obscuring his eyes yet somehow _not_ managing to hide the purple bruise forming on one cheek, and Kyo felt a soaring _triumph_ fill his being, eclipsing even Shigure's startled exclamation and Tohru's continuous babble of worry. He'd _won_. The cat had finally beaten _that damn rat_.

Akito _must_ keep his word. And that meant he was _free_.

Actually, Akito _didn't_ have to keep it, Akito didn't have to do a damn thing, but that didn't matter. He'd _won_.

He didn't notice Yuki calmly get up and begin to dust himself off, only seeing the defeated rat again when Yuki was heading back into the house.

"Off to lick your wounds, rat-boy?" he half-heartedly gloated, smiling for once – hell, he could smile for the rat now, because now he was _free_. Yuki stopped, and a brief flicker of a smile ghosted over his lips (though it didn't even touch his dark, haunted eyes). He continued into the house, wordlessly brushing past the worried Tohru, who knew better than to follow him and instead ran out to check on the victorious cat.

Only Shigure's eyes, strangely troubled, followed Yuki's slow steps up the stairs. And once he was out of sight, Shigure stood, straightened his robes-

And went to make what would prove to be a very fateful phone call.

--00--

Akito had agreed to keep his word. The cat would remain free.

Kyo floated the last few weeks to graduation, an event he'd once dreaded suddenly seeming like the perfect time for a party. After all, why _not_ party? _He was **free**_.

If Yuki got more withdrawn and cold these last weeks, Kyo never noticed.

After the long, drawn-out ritual of school graduation came the Sohma family after-part of sorts. In order for Kyo to attend, Shigure had decided that, rather than hold the event in the compound, they would bring the celebration to his place.

Yet somehow, he had the temerity to act surprised when both Yuki and Kyo subsequently became furious with him.

All of which boiled down to – Akito would be making his first ever visit to Yuki's (relatively new) home.

This vaguely alarmed everyone, even Kyo, though he'd never admit it.

But sitting at the party, munching on riceballs he and Tohru had made together just that morning, Kyo couldn't help thinking that they'd all been worried for nothing. Akito was on his very best behavior. Smiling, not turning up his nose every time he caught sight of Kyo, not invading Yuki's personal space – one could almost pretend that their fearless god was indeed utterly sane.

That Yuki seemed more put off by Akito's unusual behavior than he would be normally should've been a cause for concern in and of itself.

And if asked, Yuki would have said that Kyo's arguably naive belief that Akito's behavior was something to trust and not to _fear_ was part of the reason Yuki had always been able to physically best him before – Kyo believed what he saw with his own eyes, always. Lying, even a fake out during a fight, was beyond him.

Which Yuki might have said was charming, had Kyo been anyone but the cat.

_Akito_, today, was charming. Like that smile he was wearing as he stood and clapped his hands to gather everyone's attention – if you didn't know him, it could almost be charming instead of feral...

"A congratulations," he said in his smooth, silky voice, "to the graduates."

A cheer went up, traveled its way through the raucous crowd. When Akito moved to speak again, the whole crowd fell obediently silent once more.

"As some of you know," he went on, "the _cat_ and I had a bet." Kyo was so distracted by the venom dripping from the word 'cat' that it took him a minute to realize – Akito was spilling their secret, and despite Akito's words, no one besides them _had_ known...

He looked up just in time to see Yuki bend his head and face the ground.

Before Kyo could say or do anything, could react _at all_, Akito was speaking again.

"If the cat successfully defeated the rat, his fate of being locked away would be averted. All he had to do was beat Yuki _once_. Which, for a very long time, he failed to do."

Even now, rage began to burn in Kyo, to throb viciously in his stomach. Akito was far from him, but still he saw Akito smile when their eyes met.

"But just a few weeks ago, Kyo finally accomplished his goal, and won the bet. The cat will finally have his revenge on the deceitful, traitorous rat."

_Wait a minute. **Revenge?**_

_...will?_

"Yuki," Akito practically purred. "Come here."

Wordlessly Yuki moved to his side, not flinching when Akito grabbed his arm and roughly pulled him around, not looking up from glum contemplation of the apparently fascinating ground.

"As of today," Akito said smoothly, "the rat will take the cat's punishment, and remain caged for the rest of his life."

Tohru, naturally, shrieked. Haru and Ayame seemed to be competing for who could protest the most loudly (though both were defeated by the shrill complaints of Momiji). Hatori silently stood back and put his face in his hands.

But while all this was going on, Kyo stared at Yuki. He was too in shock to process what _he_ felt; but he wanted, desperately, illogically, to know what _Yuki_ felt.

As if he knew, Yuki looked up at him, met his gaze with sad but tearless violet eyes, eyes that looked hollow in his face. Whatever Yuki really felt, it was, as ever, hidden from him.

Yuki lowered his gaze. And for some obscure, unknowable reason (a reason he didn't _want_ to know), Kyo was absurdly grateful.

--End Part One--


	2. Part Two: I'll Shut Down

Disclaimer – I do not own or profit from Fruits Basket. If I did, Kyo and Yuki would be _really_ living up the whole love-hate relationship thing...

Rated M for stuff that happens later on. Trust me.

And just so you know, there _will_ be slash (yaoi) here, as well as just general dark themes. You've been warned.

More song lyrics as a chapter title, but still no lyrics in the fic... I don't own or profit from "Kickout"; it belongs to The Exies, so I imagine they do. Profit from it, I mean.

To Xiamandelaine, yes, this is a slash story for Yuki and Kyo, though it may not become overly obvious for a time... Thank you, thank you to _all_ the people who reviewed or even just took the time to read the first chapter. I wish I could thank each and every one of you personally.

Anyway, enjoy. Peace, all.

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**Kickout**

_Part Two – I'll Shut Down..._

by Ghost Helwig

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Two weeks. It had been two weeks since Yuki got locked up, and though Kyo wanted (deep down where he could only barely admit it to himself) to visit him, he didn't. He _couldn't_. What would even be the point?

Tohru visited him, every day before work. Now that high school was over, she'd fully intended to get a fulltime job, but with what had happened at their graduation party all her plans had gotten side railed. She wasn't focused on a job anymore, on keeping her promise to her mother (she'd done that, really, simply by graduating); instead, she was focused on Yuki.

Yeah, that grated. A _lot_.

But Kyo didn't blame her, because he couldn't, not really. She cared about that damn _rat_, and seeing Yuki locked up (_where **I** was supposed to be_) upset her deeply.

Which was why it didn't surprise him at all when she came home that night in tears. Why wouldn't she? She was always crying lately, over that stupid rat-boy...

"Kyo." Tohru was looking up at him with those big blue eyes of hers. He froze. For a second, it looked like she might throw her arms around him and sob against his chest, but by now she knew better – she settled on grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze.

"What's wrong?" Now, why did he ask that? He _knew_ what the problem was. That damn rat-

"Y-yuki, he..." She wiped her eyes with her arm, like a child; his chest ached. "He told me not to come see him anymore."

_Huh?_

"D-did I do something w-wrong? I j-just wanted to c-comfort him-"

"It's not your fault. Yuki told all of us to stop."

Kyo's head shot up, his eyes meeting with Shigure's over Tohru's shoulder. Shigure looked... older, somehow, than he had before...

Tohru had turned to look at Shigure now, and out of the corner of his eye Kyo could see the concern and slight relief written all over her face. "R-really?" Shigure smiled at her, briefly; it struck Kyo as one of the more transparent expressions he'd ever seen on his cousin's face.

"Yes. I just received a very upset call from Aya. Apparently he, Momiji, and Haru were all told to back off today."

"And you?" Kyo asked. He wasn't sure why, but he needed to know the answer.

Shigure had turned away, but now he glanced back at him, his eyes unreadable.

"Before Yuki was locked up, he told Hatori and I never to come at all."

While Kyo was digesting that information, Shigure walked away. And it wasn't until Kyo lay in bed that night that it occurred to Kyo-

Yuki had never told _him_ not to come.

He'd told the people he'd never trusted not to, and now he'd even told his friends (and his brother, whom he'd learned to tolerate, if nothing else), but never _him_. He'd never said anything about it to Kyo at all.

Kyo was out of bed before he could stop and think. It was late at night, close to midnight according to his clock, but that didn't matter. He could catch up on sleep some other time (he hadn't been sleeping, anyway). Right now he had a _goal_.

It was time to pay that damn rat a visit.

--00--

Sneaking into the compound wasn't particularly hard; finding Yuki, Kyo thought, would be the real trick. Who knew where Akito would keep him? He'd never bothered to ask the others about that.

He never asked them much about Yuki at all. Why would he?

He decided to check the first place he could think of – the small room where his Master had told him his grandfather had been held. After all, if Yuki was playing the part of the cat, he should be in the cat's cell...

Funny how that thought made Kyo feel a little sick. He pushed it aside.

Somehow his blurry memory of the way to get to the location he needed had led him true – only too soon he was peering into the inky darkness of a room that even at night he could plainly see appeared empty...

"Come to gloat, stupid cat?"

Kyo nearly jumped out of his skin, jerking backwards. He stared in shock at the barred window; he couldn't _see_ Yuki in that place, but he knew he'd _heard_ him...

"Damn rat," he muttered. "Come out where I can see you."

It was only when Yuki's eyes glared out at him through the bars that he realized his poor choice of words. Before he could even decide if he wanted to try to expend the energy necessary to find words that would form an appropriate apology without him actually having to say the words '_I'm sorry_', Yuki spoke. _His_ words came out the closest to a sneer that Kyo had ever heard from the 'ice prince'.

"Are you trying to be funny?"

_No. I'm trying to understand how this happened – what I should say – what I should **do** – because I **hate** you, you damn rat – I **hate** you – I hate you but I never wanted this –_

"Do you actually have a bed in there?"

Where the hell had _that_ question come from?

Yuki stared at him; even in the gloom his eyes were fierce, dark and cold. The purple was lost to the shadows, just as the moonlight washed his silver hair to white; but somehow seeing him in the stark black and white that he was awash in made that weird little poignant _ache_ in Kyo's chest all the worse.

He was not a _bad_ person, by any means; so he knew he couldn't help but feel for someone in Yuki's position right now. But he resented it all the same.

"No," Yuki said, and Kyo's mind had moved so far from the conversation in those few seconds he'd spent musing that it took him a minute to remember – _that's right. We were talking about beds. Because sometimes, I _am_ a stupid cat_.

And that thought pissed him off, pissed him off so much that it took another minute for him to register what Yuki'd said, and put it together with his question in order to get-

"Wait. You don't get a _bed_!"

In the dimness, he could sense more than see Yuki shrug.

"It's not so bad."

Then, in a quiet whisper Kyo was certain he wasn't supposed to hear:

"I'm used to the cold."

That wasn't supposed to make him _ache_, dammit. It _wasn't_.

He met Yuki's eyes again, squarely, and was startled by the abrupt realization that if they fought now, he couldn't hit Yuki, couldn't reach between the bars in order to reach those eyes and quiet their smug superiority for good-

"Why're you here, Kyo?"

He blinked, thought of a million different ways to answer Yuki's simple question, blinked again, shifted nervously from foot to foot, blinked another dozen times-

And still had absolutely _no idea_ what to say.

So instead of answering, he asked a question.

"Why did you tell Tohru to stay away? You really upset her, you damn rat."

Kyo thought Yuki's eyes left his for a second to glance down – he couldn't be sure, though. And now those dark eyes were studying him thoughtfully...

"Would you want Miss Honda to see you this way, stupid cat?"

Kyo frowned. No, he wouldn't have – but he also knew he would've wanted to see _her_ more than protecting his stupid pride-

_But not more than protecting her...?_

Was that why Yuki had sent her away? To protect her?

...Though he hated to admit it, Kyo knew that was probably it-

And that in Yuki's place (_where I belong, where I was meant to be_), he never could've done it.

"And the others?" he asked, knowing the answer was the same but needing to say _something_ to get this sick weight off his heart, to take the taste of bile from his throat...

Yuki sighed, leaned his head down on the little ledge just inside the bars. Kyo immediately thought of about ten different ways he could tease Yuki about the little red line that would undoubtedly end up on his forehead tomorrow if he stayed there too long – then he realized that he wouldn't see Yuki tomorrow, or the day after that, or the day after _that_...

And suddenly teasing him didn't seem all that important.

Moonlight was still catching on Yuki's hair (even worse now, he could see it, it was worse now), turning gray to white, dark to light. There was an analogy in there Kyo was sure, but he was no good at metaphors or poetry or living outside in a world where the rat was caged for mistakes another rat had made in a story where all the main players had already died long ago-

And he had to _go_, now. No choice. He had to.

If he didn't, he was afraid he might cry. In front of rat-boy. And that was unforgivable.

"I gotta go," he muttered. Yuki shifted almost imperceptibly (if Kyo had not been _Kyo_, and thus trained in martial arts for much of his life, he probably would not have even noticed it), but said nothing. And for a moment, Kyo wanted to reach through the bars with his fingers and just touch that silky hair, maybe say _thank you_ and _I'm sorry_ in a way that would actually matter, actually make some small difference...

He turned away instead.

He was about to walk away when he heard Yuki's voice; slightly muffled now, but strong, stronger than the voice of someone so _trapped_ had any right to be.

"They need to move on. They can't do that if they stay here."

He turned back to the window, but Yuki had already gone.

And it wasn't until Kyo had slipped back into the house and climbed once more into his bed (that felt too cold, and yet conversely, much warmer than it had any right to be – _I should be freezing_) that he realized two (_very important_) things.

The first, was that Yuki _still_ had not forbidden him to come.

And the second was that, for the first time _ever_, Yuki had called him by name.

To his face. With no obvious animosity ringing in the word. No dubious intent.

Kyo couldn't quite figure out what that meant. And why it didn't bother him _nearly_ as much as it probably should.

--_End Part Two_--


	3. Part Three: 'Til Someone Saves Me

Disclaimer – I do not own or profit from Fruits Basket. So stop pretending you think I do – your friends no longer think it's funny.

Rated M for things that still aren't happening yet. A slash story. You have been warned. ... Again.

I apologize for how long it took me to upload this – I'm afraid work, various other stories, and most of all, illness, kept me from writing this in a timely fashion. Again, I apologize.

Anyway, enjoy. Peace, all.

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**Kickout**

_Part Three – ...'Til Someone Saves Me_

by Ghost Helwig

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Kyo managed to wait a lofty grand total of twenty-three hours before visiting Yuki again.

He hadn't _intended_ to go visit that damn rat again, but when he woke up, it was all he could think about – it took all his restraint to not blurt out to Tohru over breakfast, when she commented sadly on the fact that she'd made Yuki's favorite foods and he wasn't there to eat any of it, that he could take rat-boy some...

After all, it would only hurt Tohru to know that Yuki would accept his visits and not hers.

Besides which, he... wanted this for himself. God only knew why.

So he worked quietly at the dojo beside his Master, met Tohru and her friends for lunch (both he and an obviously upset Tohru very pointedly _not _answering Uo's increasingly concerned and Hana's obviously knowing – or at the very least _suspicious_ - questions about Yuki's whereabouts when they hadn't seen him since graduation), went through the rounds of having a life – but all the while, his attention was elsewhere.

It wasn't until he was sneaking out again that night that it occurred to him that somehow, someway, he too had managed to become caged.

-X-

When he reached the cage, Yuki was already standing there, arms resting on that too-tiny ledge, face upturned, towards the moon. Kyo stared for a full minute before Yuki turned to him, and the very faint smile that passed over Yuki's face made that horrible _ache_ start up all over again.

He wished the moon and stars were darker, so he couldn't see.

"You came back."

Was that a question, or a statement? Kyo couldn't even tell.

So he responded (_retaliated_) with anger. It was what he was good at; what he knew.

Especially with this new version of Yuki before him, he needed very badly to hold on to what he knew.

"So? You got a problem with that, rat-boy?"

For just a moment, he could feel Yuki bristling, and it was just like back home, when they fought over the smallest, stupidest things in their lame attempts to feel _alive_...

But then Yuki backed down, without even a scathing remark in reply. And that was new. Unwelcomely so.

"You're different," Kyo said without thinking. Yuki's eyes, already dark, seemed to darken further – though perhaps it was just a trick of the light.

His voice, when he spoke, was a whisper, yet it cut Kyo to the core somehow.

"How would you know?"

And that... that was _true_. But it pissed Kyo off all the same.

...maybe because it _was_ true. He didn't care to figure it out just then.

"Yeah, I just lived with you for _years_," he snapped. "How could I _possibly_ know anything about your princely self?"

Yuki's gaze _snapped_ onto him, and in the darkness like this, Kyo felt like he was going to drown just looking into those fathomless eyes...

"You _don't know me_," Yuki said, and the whisper this time was as harsh as icicles. "You never bothered to know me. Just like I never bothered to know you. The cat and the rat is all we've ever been to each other."

Kyo thought a moment, staring at that delicate, delicately shadowed face, and something inside him fell away.

"Yeah, well, I'm here now," he said casually, sitting on the ground just far enough away from the door that he could look up at Yuki without having to crane his neck too much. "What do you want to know?"

The look on Yuki's face was absolutely priceless.

-X-

And so it began. Kyo wasn't sure quite why, still, why Yuki allowed it or why he did it, but just about every night, near midnight, he visited Yuki. And the nights that he couldn't get away to see the rat somehow wore on him more than the nights that he could.

He napped often, never sure when he'd get the chance to do so and so taking every opportunity to gather his reserves. If anyone but Tohru thought this odd, no one mentioned it to his face; and she was so accustomed to seeing him nap on the roof, and so distracted by her worry for Yuki, that all he had to do was tell her he'd had trouble sleeping the night before and she'd leave him alone.

It was two weeks into their new set-up when Kyo came to Yuki's cage only to find that the rat wasn't there.

He waited until just a while before dawn, calling quietly in the window, skulking a little outside the rest of the compound hoping to stumble onto some sort of clue. But Yuki was just _gone_.

And the hell of it was, he couldn't very well _ask_ someone what had happened. He doubted Yuki was really encouraged to have visitors-

And Kyo especially would be frowned upon (and commented upon, freely and in disgusting terms, by Shigure and Ayame). He wasn't even allowed _in_ the place, let alone allowed to visit the condemned rat.

Not that he'd been explicitly forbidden to visit, but who would bother forbidding the cat to go where he _was_ forbidden and see the rat that he so hated?

If they only knew.

But he couldn't ask, because he wasn't supposed to know, and frankly he still didn't _want_ anyone knowing about his visits with Yuki. It was none of their damn business what he did with his time.

But Yuki – _where the _fuck_ was _Yuki?

-X-

Kyo practically _ran_ to Yuki's cell that night, which disturbed him greatly – why did he _care_ if the rat disappeared? Good riddance!

...but he didn't believe that anymore, and he knew it.

It was the guilt. He knew it had to be the guilt. Whatever happened to Yuki from here on in would be on _his_ shoulders, because Yuki was living the life _he_ had been meant for, been destined for...

It was a relief when he saw a glint of silver-gray inside Yuki's cell, not only because it meant Yuki was _there_, now, but because it forced him to stop thinking.

He stopped at his usual distance away and hissed at the window, knowing full well that it made him seem even more like a cat and not caring.

"Get your ass out here, rat-boy. You need to explain something to me _right now_."

There was a brief rustling sound, then silence. Kyo was about to snap again when a face appeared between the bars.

It was Yuki's face, but for a full minute Kyo just stared at him, not recognizing him at all. Yuki didn't have such shadowed eyes. No one ever got close enough to bust his lip open. He did not possess such a smile, so sad and small and bittersweet that it looked like heartbreak turned flesh.

"I'm sorry, Kyo," he said softly, before Kyo could even recover enough to find his breath. "I... I couldn't..."

His facade of easy, calm composure faltered, finally vanished. Kyo couldn't even name the look that took its place.

"It's alright," he said gruffly, when it was anything but. "You don't have to explain." Which was a blatant lie, too, because he _needed_ things explained, needed to know why the locked-up rat had been gone from his cage for a whole night (at the very least; Kyo had no idea when exactly he'd disappeared, or when he'd returned). He needed to know what in the _hell_ was going on.

_What, exactly, was the fate he saved me from?_

An uncomfortable thought.

But then Yuki smiled, just a little, just a wry, relieved upturn to the corners of his lips, and suddenly it really _was_ all okay again...

For a little while.

--_End Part Three_--


	4. Part Four: How Much More

Disclaimer – I do not own or profit from Fruits Basket. --Insert witty comment here.--

Also? The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Giver, and The Matrix do not belong to me, nor do I profit from them. The references in this chapter were, I thought, fitting, and I also tried to choose movies and books popular enough that their exposure in Japan would almost be guaranteed...

Rated M, still, for slash/yaoi, darkness, et al.

No spoilers in this chapter, unless of course you haven't been reading this story up 'til now.

I apologize for my looong absence of late. I hope I can be more active now...

Anyway, enjoy. Peace, all.

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Kickout

_Part Four – How Much More..._

by Ghost Helwig

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"You can't seriously tell me you thought 'The Hobbit' was a better book than the entire 'Lord Of The Rings' trilogy."

"It _was_," Yuki insisted, eyes gleaming with mirth even in the midnight gloom. "Cleaner storyline, more likeable characters – after all, at least in 'The Hobbit', we actually _get_ some character development..."

Kyo shook his head, leaning back on his elbows on the cold, hard ground, so that he could look up, directly into Yuki's eyes.

"What's so likeable about dwarves?" he muttered mutinously, just so he could see Yuki's face react accordingly. "And since when don't you like messy plotlines? When we saw The Matrix you were all '_kickass_!'" Kyo paused for a moment, a mock-pensive look on his face. "Which I think proves your opinions can't be trusted," he finally went on. "That movie made no sense."

Though it was too dark for him to be really certain, Kyo could practically _feel_ Yuki roll his eyes.

"The Matrix made _perfect_ sense, stupid cat," Yuki muttered, a hint of normalcy in their currently very un-normal world. "As I told you then, it starts out as almost an adult, technologically-oriented version of '_The Giver_'-"

"I could trade places with you."

Kyo wasn't sure what made him say it, but it was worth it, just to see the indescribable look on Yuki's face. (_Beauty warred with so many un-beautiful emotions that the face might've been marred – had it not been a face so beautiful that ugliness of all kinds was transformed by it._)

Though he could've happily gone without the almost-yelling that followed.

"Are you out of your _mind_?" Yuki hissed loudly. "_Even_ if Akito would allow it, which he _wouldn't,_" a small, vicious-looking _not-smile_, "_I would **never** let you do that_."

A near-growl, a darkening of those gorgeous, clear eyes.

"_Ever._"

Yuki's eyes were shining, now, twin lights in the darkness, paler than his skin but not as cold. He looked like he might cry.

And his very vehemence made something in Kyo's gut clench and freeze.

(_Yuki... don't you _want _to get out of here?_)

Sometime during his outburst, Yuki's hands had risen to wrap around the bars of his window, strangling them. His knuckles were white, so white they practically glowed.

And Kyo... was somehow drawn to them.

As if from far away Kyo watched his own hand rise, watched his fingers stretch, descend, reach to touch that tense skin. Two fingertips glided over the knuckle of Yuki's pointer finger, traced over the hard bump with fingers that trembled and shook (with nerves? Or what? _What_!) He thought maybe Yuki gulped at the unexpected contact, but he would never be really sure.

What he knew was that it was _fascinating_, sliding his touch from finger to finger, feeling silky-smooth flesh tense and un-tense beneath the brush of his own skin. He'd forgotten how graceful Yuki could make even the smallest of movements; the play of a soft night breeze in his hair, the tiny gesture of reaching for a pencil in class, he made each and every one the picture of loveliness and grace...

_It's one of the reasons I've always hated him._

_...the freak._

He yanked his hand away.

Even more, now, Yuki appeared on the verge of tears.

Kyo couldn't take it; couldn't handle whatever it was this was. Without even scrambling together a pathetic excuse of a goodbye, he left-

Before _he_ could give in...

And weep.

(_...even if he had no idea why._)

-X-

"Kyo."

"Kyo?"

"Um, Kyo? Are you okay?"

"Kyo?"

Tohru knocked again, quieter this time, a frown she couldn't suppress crossing her features. It was the fifth day in a row of this, Kyo... locked away (_hiding_; even she could tell that) in his bedroom, and she was more than a little worried...

"Dinner's ready, if you're hungry," she whispered, hoping her voice carried through the door. No reason why it shouldn't, really; the walls were thin, and as ever, no noise could be heard coming from inside the room...

In a last ditch effort, she murmured, "or I could bring you something...?"

Silence was her only response.

So she turned away, trying hard not to let herself feel too down, lest anyone waste time and energy worrying over her. (_But with both Yuki and Kyo gone, her world, so full of love and friends, felt suddenly empty, cold as ice and quiet as the grave that her mother rested in. God, she still missed her mother._)

And inside the room, Kyo buried his face in his hands.

That night, as with the four before, he did not go to see Yuki again. He couldn't.

_Because the cat had won, won his right to lord it over the rat, but that did not mean the cat could watch the rat slowly drowning._

There were some things in life that Kyo just could not submit himself to willingly. Spending 'quality time' with that Yankee friend of Tohru's, Uo. Walking _anywhere_ in the dark with Tohru's _other_ friend, Hana. Listening to Shigure speak... at _all_.

And... _this_.

It was a good thing, really, that his face was being smothered by his hands. After all...

It was easier to hide from the world that way.

Footfalls, light and hesitant, in the hallway outside his door. Tohru was returning.

He slid down in his bed, pulled the sheet over his head and tried to block out all the little ways he could feel her concern.

Oh yes. It was infinitely easier.

--_End Part Four_--


End file.
